Studer Leads Conversation on Pensacola’s Future

by Tony McCray
Quint Studer, the health consultant turned entrepreneurial consultant-baseball team owner-community philanthropist, is at change making once more. However, this time in partnership with the Pensacola News Journal, the stakes are much higher. The project is called CivicCon and will be featuring national speakers such as Chuck Marohn, a Professional Engineer licensed in Minnnesota. Marohn, who also has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning, will provide their expertise and ideas on the path for a greater Pensacola and Escambia County.
The project is planned to be a year long experience of conversations and presentations by speakers that have possible solutions to offer our area. The Studer Community Institute is serving as the principal organizer to present CivicCon. According to the Quint Studer he was given a list of potential national speakers by “Smart Growth” expert Christian Wagley. The list has provided the Studer Community Institute with a slate of speakers that will take our community through a year of thought provoking dialogue, ideas, and potential solutions.
Downtown Pensacola is booming, housing construction is very strong, Triumph Gulf Coast, the BP Oil Spill non-profit economic settlement manager has $300,000,000 to award to Northwest Florida communities through 2018. The positive upswing in the economy only strengthens our tourism and economic benefits. A Black business owner that asked to remain anonymous told the Voice, “The strategic timing of CivicCon taking place this year and next demands the attention of the entire community, particularly the Black community”.
Organizers of CivicCon made it clear that they are looking to include the Black grassroots, non-profit, business, Faith-Based, and professional communities to join into the process of talking to each other about the possibilities for positive and inclusive development. Watch the Gulf Coast Voice for interviews with Quint Studer, and the staff leadership at the Studer Community Institute.